Barbara J. King
Barbara J. King is a contributor to the NPR blog 13.7: Cosmos & Culture. She is a Chancellor Professor of Anthropology at the College of William and Mary. With a long-standing research interest in primate behavior and human evolution, King has studied baboon foraging in Kenya and gorilla and bonobo communication at captive facilities in the United States.
Recently, she has taken up writing about animal emotion and cognition more broadly, including in bison, farm animals, elephants and domestic pets, as well as primates.
King's most recent book is How Animals Grieve (University of Chicago Press, 2013). Her article "When Animals Mourn" in the July 2013 Scientific American has been chosen for inclusion in the 2014 anthology The Best American Science and Nature Writing. King reviews non-fiction for the Times Literary Supplement (London) and is at work on a new book about the choices we make in eating other animals. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for her work in 2002.
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We love our dogs, cats and bunnies, sure. But are we fooling ourselves in thinking that pet-keeping is good for animals? Anthropologist Barbara J. King takes a look at a bioethicist's new book.
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That adorable lemur video going around? Think twice before sharing — or share with an explanation of why it's not-so-cute after all, says anthropologist Barbara J. King.
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With his new novel, author Yann Martel joins the genre that anthropologist Barbara J. King calls "chimpanzee fiction" — and through an ape's eyes shows us new possibilities.
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Reports about how your cat "may want to kill you" have been circulating in recent days. Anthropologist and part-time cat wrangler Barbara J. King explains the science behind the claims.
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Ecologist, activist and writer Carl Safina reflects on his observations of love and status-striving among wild wolves and discusses animal minds with anthropologist Barbara J. King.
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As a new paper describes the planning skills of a drone-smashing chimpanzee whose video went viral, anthropologist Barbara J. King considers the risks and benefits of drones flying through our world.
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As students return to school, anthropologist Barbara J. King suggests it's time for the rest of us to take a pop quiz designed to measure science literacy in the United States.
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The Matrix for spiders? Anthropologist Barbara J. King explores what scientists can learn about invertebrate perception and neurophysiology from chilling then magnetizing jumping spiders.
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More people are moving toward a plant-based diet, for a variety of reasons. Anthropologist Barbara J. King asks three animal activists what this might mean for animals — and the world.
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Humans evolved in Africa. How and when did we migrate from our ancestral home to Europe? Anthropologist Barbara J. King explains new fossil evidence from Israel.